It’s unclear what the FBI was seeking when it raided the Philadelphia Sheriff’s office Thursday and seized computers. The problems were brought to light initially by a nearly 300-page forensic audit conducted by City Controller Alan Butkovitz’s office in October 2011 that accused former Sheriff John Green of running an office rife with insider dealing and cronyism.

I spoke with Butkovitz after the raid was conducted. The original investigation in 2010 was met with persistent resistance from the sheriff’s office. Butkovitz said he tried to get Green to order his employees to comply but that failed. He said there were so many red flags that he requested roughly $650,000 in funding from Mayor Michael Nutter and city council to conduct a forensic audit.

How long before you got your first big break with the investigation?

The investigation was tedious. Nothing in that office was organized in a meaningful way. We had piles of paper on the floor trying to connect the dots. Finally in June or July, we found a smoking gun document. We found two different documents with different formulas for computing commission for advertising foreclosures. But that wasn’t what we were initially looking at.

What did you think were the big issues initially?

We saw changing numbers in the electronic ledgers. But it turns out that their computers were outdated and couldn’t perform all the necessary functions. And the changes were how they deal with that. There was also the issue of how they handled cash at sheriff’s sale. But it turns out that was pristine. So we turned toward other issues, like overcharging, hiring middlemen to get a 35 percent commission on foreclosures, paying $2.9 million to set up a website. We came up with about 20 different things.

What did you think was the most egregious thing?

In terms of moral culpability, it would have to be making people pay the one-third commission to get the money they were entitled [after their homes were sold via foreclosure]. That had a face on it because those were human beings.

When you finished the investigation, you wrote a letter to both federal prosecutors and the city solicitor encouraging them to take action. The city did file a civil suit in April. Were you pleased to see that?

We made a recommendation to the city in late 2011 and the suit was filed in April 2013. So it did take a while. At first there was some concern about whether we were going to be able to trace all the ill-gotten gains to somewhere that it would be recoverable. But we hired a great law firm that is used to finding people with deep pockets. As for the federal prosecutors, given the complexities of the information, it doesn’t surprise me that the criminal investigation is taking so long.